This "AGA System" for lighthouses and buoys formed the basis of the company’s economic success. In 1912, Gustaf Dalén received the Nobel Prize in physics for the invention of his system. Some of his gas-run lighthouses light the way for ships even today. Although he was blinded in an accident in 1912, Dalén successfully led the company until his death in 1937.
In the period between the two world wars, AGA expanded its product line with signal systems, welding equipment, heating elements, radios, large film projectors and automobiles, which were manufactured in Berlin. From the late 1930s until the 1960s, AGA also sold gyro compasses, gyro-horizons and bomb target sights for the Swedish Air Force.
In 1947 AGA took over the battery manufacturer Tudor. In 1954, AGA introduced the world’s first heart-lung machine; other innovative products included the distance meter with a geodimeter in 1953 and in 1965 contact-free temperature measurement with the AGA Thermovision. But the most important field of this diversified technology company was technical gases. AGA went from acetylene to oxygen and soon produced a number of other gases. As early as the 1930s, AGA became involved in the area of medical gases. For example, the company supplied oxygen, mainly as a mixed gas together with laughing gas and "Carbogen" (oxygen with five percent carbon dioxide) to hospitals for the treatment of respiratory diseases, for anesthesia and for treatment of pain. AGA also built corresponding technical medical equipment.
With its highly diversified product line, AGA was unable to withstand international competition over time. For that reason, the company concentrated exclusively on its gas business starting in the 1980s. In 1981, AGA already held the position of the world’s fifth largest gas producer. Political changes made it possible for AGA to return to the markets in Hungary, East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia and Romania after 1989, where the company had been represented before 1945.
In 1999, AGA was an innovative gas company with a strong market position in Europe and North and South America with a sales volume of 1.6 billion euro and 9,500 employees. As far as regional positioning and product and service lines, AGA made the ideal complement to Linde - the main requirements for the takeover were there.
After the integration of AGA, Linde Gas and Linde Engineering were merged in 2001 to form the Linde Gas and Engineering Division. |